It is certain all Orcs were dependent on the Dark Lord in various ways: after their leader was defeated, the Orcs were confused and dismayed, and easily scattered by their enemies. In the millennia after Morgoth's defeat and banishment from Arda, they were without a leader and they degenerated to small, quarrelsome tribes hiding in the [[Misty Mountains]]. Only when Sauron returned to power did they begin to reclaim some of their old power. The same happened after Sauron's defeat by the [[Last Alliance of Elves and Men]]: only when Sauron returned as the Necromancer of [[Mirkwood]] did the Orcs become a real danger for Middle-earth again.

It is certain all Orcs were dependent on the Dark Lord in various ways: after their leader was defeated, the Orcs were confused and dismayed, and easily scattered by their enemies. In the millennia after Morgoth's defeat and banishment from Arda, they were without a leader and they degenerated to small, quarrelsome tribes hiding in the [[Misty Mountains]]. Only when Sauron returned to power did they begin to reclaim some of their old power. The same happened after Sauron's defeat by the [[Last Alliance of Elves and Men]]: only when Sauron returned as the Necromancer of [[Mirkwood]] did the Orcs become a real danger for Middle-earth again.

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It is interesting to note that to an extent, Tolkien did not regard Orcs as evil in their own right, but only as tools of Melkor and Sauron.

History

Origins and early Years

The Orcs were created by Melkor in mockery of the Elves, sometime during the Great Darkness.[4][5] They were made from lost Elves who were tortured, mutilated and corrupted by Morgoth. They were also capable of multiplying on their own, without interference by Morgoth or Sauron, although there are no accounts of Orc women or children.

It is unclear when exactly Orcs were created, but it certainly happened before the War for Sake of the Elves in his stronghold of Utumno, and probably before the beginning of the First Age. Before the firstborn Elves made contact with the Valar, some of them got lost or were abducted in the dark places of Middle-Earth before the creation of the Sun and Moon. If the Orcs were at this time a capable fighting force against the host of Valinor is not known. But at least some of them survived this war, probably hidden in the deep vaults of Angband and multiplied, waiting for their master.

Second Age

Around the year S.A.1000 Sauron reappeared, took the land of Mordor as his realm and started the construction of Barad-dûr. It is likely that most of his servants were Orcs at this time that he had gathered under his command. Still for a long time Sauron's foul servants did not play an important role, for the Dark Lord had chosen a more subtle way to overthrow the free people by creating the Rings of Power.

During the War of the Elves and Sauron, in S.A.1700 Orcs formed the main power of Sauron's host. Despite the immeasurable number of Orcs, Sauron was defeated by the united hosts of Elves and Númenóreans. Still Sauron was powerful east of the Misty Mountains and the inlands, and the Orcs that inhabited the mountains multiplied.

Fourth Age and beyond

Characteristics

Culture

It is certain all Orcs were dependent on the Dark Lord in various ways: after their leader was defeated, the Orcs were confused and dismayed, and easily scattered by their enemies. In the millennia after Morgoth's defeat and banishment from Arda, they were without a leader and they degenerated to small, quarrelsome tribes hiding in the Misty Mountains. Only when Sauron returned to power did they begin to reclaim some of their old power. The same happened after Sauron's defeat by the Last Alliance of Elves and Men: only when Sauron returned as the Necromancer of Mirkwood did the Orcs become a real danger for Middle-earth again.

Lifespan

It is unknown if the Orcs were immortal like the Elves. There is, in any case, a hint for a long livespan in the story of two of the most famous Orc-chieftains: Azog and Bolg. Bolg, being the son of Azog, was the chieftain of the Orcs who attacked Erebor in the Battle of Five Armies in T.A.2941. Azog himself was killed in the Battle of Azanulbizar in T.A.2799, so Bolg was aproximately 150 years old.

Appearance

In Tolkien's writing, Orcs are smaller in stature than Men. One "huge orc-chieftain" is "almost Man-high", but others must have been of a similar size to Hobbits (Frodo and Sam succeeded in disguising themselves as Orcs in Mordor). They had long arms and fanged mouths. Some had black skin. Some had short, crooked legs. They had black blood.[source?]

Kinds of Orcs

The Fellowship usually encountered the large soldier-Orcs bred for war, and sometimes the "snaga" variety which were more geared towards being labourers. Another type is referred to as "snufflers", smaller, black-skinned Orcs and wide nostrils, excelling in tracking. Despite the smaller size, one snuffler was able to skilfully kill a soldier-orc when they got into a disagreement.[6]

Orcs and Goblins

"Goblin" is an English word, whereas "Orcs" is Old English, the language used by Tolkien to represent Rohirric.[9] Thus, there is no difference between Orcs and Goblins.

The original edition of The Hobbit and early drafts of The Lord of the Rings first used "goblin" everywhere and used "hobgoblin" for larger, more evil goblins: when goblins were replaced with Orcs Tolkien invented the term Uruk-hai for his more evil Orcs.

Etymology

Orc

The word Orc is said to be the "form of the name that other races had for this foul people as it was in the language of Rohan".[10]

In his late, post-Lord of the Rings writings, Tolkien preferred the spelling Ork.[11] This was evidently mainly to avoid the form Orcish, which would be naturally pronounced with the c as /s/ instead of /k/. (In Tolkien's languages the letter c was always pronounced /k/.) It is also possible that the word is a Common Tongue Version of 'orch', the Sindarin word for Orc. The original sense of the word seems to be "bogey", "bogeyman", that is, something that provokes fear, as seen in the Quenya cognate urko, pl. urqui.[source?]

Tolkien derived the word orc from Old English believing it refers to a kind of evil spirits,[12][13] which in turn derives from Latin Orcus "Hades". He also thought it survives in the modern language for sea-beasts,[14] such as the Orca Whale.

Orc is an Old English word that refers mainly to a kind of metal cup (from Latin Urceus).[note 1] However, in a 11th century glossary, this entry was conflated with another entry which refers to evil giants such as þyrs and other monsters, also glossed in Latin as Orcus. This merge of the two entries made many philologists of the previous centuries, like Tolkien, to believe that Orc was an actual Old English word that refers to any kind of evil creature from the underworld.[15]

The word Orcnéas is once found only in Beowulf (lines 112-113) and is cited as an example of the word "Orc" in Old English text. Actually its meaning is not clear, and it is thought to refer to corpses (néas) from the Underworld.

However, it is also mentioned that the word Orc is Anglo-Saxon for "Foreigner, Monster, Demon" and was used to refer to the Normans invading the Anglish in 1066.[16]

"Orcs" in Tolkien's languages

Tolkien said that one of the reason of choosing "Orc" over "Goblin" was the similarity with his fictional languages.[17] Indeed most Elvish, Mannish and other words for Orc, are similar to the English word.

Goblin

Goblin is a folk word which according to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English is probably derived from the Anglo-French gobelin a diminutive of gobel (cf. kobold). William D.B. Loos notes that goblin is a Romance-derived word, unlike other Germanic words preferred by Tolkien.[28]

"Goblin" in Tolkien's languages

In the Etymologies, the Elvish names used to translate "goblin" derive from root ÓROK and are:[24]

In an early linguistic writing, Tolkien translated the Gnomish word Gong as "one of a tribe of the orcs. a goblin."[30]

Other Versions of the Legendarium=

Origin

According to the oldest "theory" proposed by Tolkien, Orcs were made of stone and slime through the sorcery of Morgoth. But, Tolkien later changed the legendarium so that Morgoth could no longer produce life on his own.

While Tolkien originally saw all Orcs as descended from tortured Elves, later comments of his indicate, according to Christopher Tolkien in Morgoth's Ring ("Myths Transformed, text X"), that he began to feel uncomfortable with the theory that orcs were descending from Elves. However, Tolkien died before he could complete his upheaval of the cosmology, and in the published version of The Silmarillion, the Elf origin of Orcs was adopted. It does not appear that the elder Tolkien ever decided on a definitive answer.

The origin of Orcs is an open question. In Tolkien's writings, evil is not capable of independent creation, making it unlikely that the ValaMelkor, who was obviously the first to produce them, could do that ex nihilo. In The Silmarillion is mentioned that the Orcs were transformed from Elves — the purest form of life on Arda (the Earth) — by means of torture and mutilation; and this "theory" would then become the most popular. There are hints in the History of Middle-earth series of books, (especially in Morgoth's Ring in the section "Myths Transformed"), that some Orc leaders, such as the First Age's Boldog, or the Great Goblin encountered by Bilbo and the Dwarves, may in fact have been fallen Maiar which had taken Orc form.

Yet other Orcs may have begun as animals of vaguely humanoid shapes, empowered by the will of the Dark Lord (first Morgoth, later Sauron): this may explain the references to their "beaks and feathers"[source?] in Tolkien's writings.

Controversy

Tolkien's Orcs have allegedly been a subject of criticism of racism. Tolkien described Orcs as "squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types".[31]

Orcs are first seen in Fornost, where they immediately attack Eradan, Andriel and Farin on their aproach.[32]Orc wariors are stronger then normal Orcs. Some Orcs have been taught sorcery by Agandaûr, these are known as Orc Sorcerers.